As some of my closest  “peeps” in  the  trivia  world  already  know, I’m  kind of  a  creature  of  habit. If  I  go  out  for  a  game  where a game leaves  a bad  taste  in  my mouth (even if the game itself didn’t  actually  go poorly), I will try  to  hit  the  “reset  button .” A do-over, if you will.

Recent  case  in  point occurred  in  July  2018  – when  I  played  a MTL game at Bobby McShane’s resulting  in  a blah  49  points (read more about that game here).  A “makeup” game  for  having  missed  a game  because  of  playing  a ’80s movies  theme  night. Though  the  low score  was  embarrassing, we still won a $20 prize. But 49 points left a really bad taste (I had 3 players at this game)! The following  night,  I went  out  to try  hitting  the “reset” button at Oscar’s, and  that  trivia  night  canceled  out  the one at Bobby  McShane’s (read about that game here).

Rewind  to March  2017 when my  team  failed  to  qualify  from  a MTL semi  at Woodstone Grill? Nothing  leaves  a bad aftertaste more than  a fucked semifinal (if you like train wrecks, you can read about that game here!  That  same  night  I played at Oscar’s  in hopes  of hitting  the reset  button. Mission  accomplished, read about that game here!

The past  two  Saturdays  I played  as  a “guest” with  another  team, and my  “mission” was  to  help  them  qualify  out  of  a semifinal  game  and play  in  finals  with  them  if  they  made  it. I accomplished  both missions, and  they  even  did  well in finals. Yes finishing in top 4 was not crappy, whether money won or not (cough)! Still, I felt  compelled  to  hit  the  “reset” button  and  get  a  real shitty game  out  of  the  way. Plus, there  were… “other” reasons  the experience  left  a bad  taste  in  my  mouth that  I’m  not  going  to  get  into  here.

And I accomplished  that  mission  tonight by  having  a  shitty  game  on my OWN  terms. I’ve  never  felt  more  “liberated.” For  the  record,  I didn’t  sabotage  the  game  on  purpose…it  just happened. And  it  was  a thing  of beauty, a joy  to behold. I owned  the badness  and had no one  to answer  to for it.

The “icing  on  the  cake” was having  a player  from  a longtime rival  team take the time to personally  congratulate  me and the  team  I played  with  last weekend for finishing  so well  (even though  we didn’t  win cash). That  was CLASSY. Yay Terry from YRS!

It’s  all  about  restoring  balance  to  the  universe! Making “sacrifices” to the  trivia  “gods!” It may  seem bizarre  to  you, but it makes  perfect  sense  to me…